Just a Thought: Intersecting
with Mayor Cisneros
By Steve Walker
In 1960 I was accepted to
attend Central Catholic High School.
I was excited having graduated from St. Gregory’s in Balcones Heights
from eighth grade and knowing I would get to attend Central with some
classmates and meet new friends from around the area, or so I thought.
Unfortunately my
excitement turned to sadness upon learning two weeks before school started that
my father was being transferred from San Antonio
to some strange place I never heard of called Springfield, Massachusetts!
I was devastated by the
move. It took me 12 years to get back to the Alamo
City after Viet Nam, promising never to leave
again other than short term travel.
When I came back to San Antonio, a few years
later I eventually met Councilman and soon to be Mayor, Henry Cisneros. That is
when I realized had I attended Central Catholic, he would have been my
classmate for four years as he is my age. (Still is!)
After that our paths have
crossed many times and continue to this day. When I ran for Judge, he
graciously endorsed me. I see him at various functions, along with his wife,
Mary Alice.
The irony is I met his
father well before I met him. In fact, I served in the Army Reserve with his
father, Colonel George Cisneros at the 90th ARCOM on Harry Wurbach Road
for a few years. Many a reserve duty I stood at attention in front of Colonel
Cisneros. When I worked at KENS-5 in 82
my first story was an interview with the Mayor’s father the Colonel for
Father’s Day. Later the Colonel and I worked out at the gym together on
occasion after he retired.
When Councilman Cisneros
decided to run for Mayor and become the Alamo City’s first Hispanic Mayor, a
number of my government students from Memorial High School and I campaigned for
him. We stuffed envelopes, walked door to door and actively participated in the
campaign when we could.
As President of the Junior
Chamber of Commerce from 1981-82 I recruited him as a dues paying member. After
he was elected Mayor I nominated him for the National Junior Chamber’s Annual
10 Outstanding Men of America Award which was presented to him in Tulsa, Oklahoma
that year. I actually sat in the Mayor’s chair in his office at 2 a.m. writing
his recommendation!
Other notables named that
year included Merle Osmond, a member of the singing Osmond family. Remember
Donny and Marie? Also Leroy Selman of the NFL Tampa Bay Bucks, and the first
blind mountain climber who climbed Mt.
Everest were also
inducted.
During the 90s when Mayor
Cisneros was named by President Bill Clinton as HUD Secretary, on more than one
occasion when I flew to D.C. to pull my Army Reserve tours at the Pentagon I
would end up on the same flight as he on our way to D.C. I would point out he flew first class and I
didn’t!
To this day I wonder if I
had not moved to that strange place in Massachusetts
if I would have hung out with the former Mayor back in the day or even another
possible classmate by the name Sonny Melendrez? I guess I will never know.
Anyway, as always, what I
write is “Just a Thought.”
Steve Walker is a Vietnam
Veteran and former Justice of the Peace and Journalist. His column “Ask the
Judge” column ran in La Prensa for the last two years.
